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Progress and a Good Steak

Made much better progress yesterday on the outline. Things are finally coming together.

When M. et Mme. Grand Maison decided to not re-open the Petit Casino grocery on time yesterday afternoon, I wound up going into town to get groceries. I stopped off at the British bookstore where I picked up a Lee Child’s book (another writer my agent had recommended I check out as I create my Rules). So far it’s occasionally frustrating to read. In some places Child is really great at describing what’s going on and the environment, yet in other places the text entirely fails to place the reader. In the first chapter as the psycho sniper is taking out civilians at a business plaza, it was nearly impossible to understand what the physical setup was. It drove me nuts trying to figure out where the killer was in relation to the people getting picked off shell by shell — was this in the building courtyard? In front of the business building? Where? All I knew was that it was next to an “ornamental pool” and that when people were leaving at 5:00pm, the flow of the crowd backlogged next to this “ornamental pool” about 35 yards away from where the sniper was. I re-read whole sections thinking I had missed something, but there just wasn’t anything there. And, true to The Rules of Psychological Thrillers, the homicide detective has the personality of corrugated cardboard. Hooray!

I then made vegetable stew and the best steak I’ve ever made. I ate it all with a glass of red wine. Not the Pallette, though. Seems we’re out of that.